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Author Topic: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka  (Read 12326 times)

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baz parkes

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #40 on: May 16, 2018, 09:52:54 AM »

Given many people have wondered about the, shall we say, singularity of the Nutters, here's a rather splendid piece of work recently published by Pete Bearon.

He's also a rather fine melodeon player, so hopefully we're still on topic...

Enjoy...I certainly did.

https://media.efdss.org/docs/HOM/HOM%20Bearon%20Coconut%20Dances.pdf

For those of a politically sensitive nature the historical references quoted occasionally use the "n" word...they are creatures of their time....
« Last Edit: May 16, 2018, 10:00:14 AM by baz parkes »
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #41 on: May 16, 2018, 11:42:23 AM »

really interesting, thanks for sharing Baz.......
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I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

Mcgrooger

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #42 on: May 18, 2018, 12:38:56 PM »

Here's my go. All done in a bit of a rush. Played on my D/G Saltarelle L'Elfique, all reeds a blazin'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6EFyjUW0Is
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boblsturm

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #43 on: May 26, 2018, 03:57:06 PM »

I've really enjoyed many of the postings here. What a fun happy tune.

Here's my take: https://youtu.be/pu25-8-M9DI

I begin with a variation of the Tip Top Polka created by my computer algorithm (https://folkrnn.org/). I asked it to complete the first four bars of the Tip Top Polka transposed to C minor (M:2/4 K:Cmin c /2 d /2 |: e e e f | c c c A /2 B /2 | c c c e | B 3), and here's what it produced (transposed to B-minor):

X:474
C: folk-rnn
T: Softmax Polka
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:Bmin
S:The RNN properties were thesession_with_repeats with seed 687677 and temperature 1.
S:The prime tokens were M:2/4 K:Cmin c /2 d /2 |: e e e f | c c c A /2 B /2 | c c c e | B 3.
B/2c/2 |:dd de |BB BG/2A/2 |BB Bd |
A3c |dB de |fB BA |GA G>F | G4 :|
|:d2 df|df d/2e/2d/2c/2 |B3c |
f2 ef/2e/2 |d2 df |df df |ec Ac | BA/2G/2 F:|
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Eshed

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #44 on: May 26, 2018, 09:07:51 PM »

I've really enjoyed many of the postings here. What a fun happy tune.

Here's my take: https://youtu.be/pu25-8-M9DI
That was a trippy rendition!
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Ellison

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #45 on: May 27, 2018, 11:51:16 AM »

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Fred

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #46 on: May 27, 2018, 12:01:38 PM »

I've really enjoyed many of the postings here. What a fun happy tune.

Here's my take: https://youtu.be/pu25-8-M9DI

I begin with a variation of the Tip Top Polka created by my computer algorithm (https://folkrnn.org/). I asked it to complete the first four bars of the Tip Top Polka transposed to C minor (M:2/4 K:Cmin c /2 d /2 |: e e e f | c c c A /2 B /2 | c c c e | B 3), and here's what it produced (transposed to B-minor):

X:474
C: folk-rnn
T: Softmax Polka
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:Bmin
S:The RNN properties were thesession_with_repeats with seed 687677 and temperature 1.
S:The prime tokens were M:2/4 K:Cmin c /2 d /2 |: e e e f | c c c A /2 B /2 | c c c e | B 3.
B/2c/2 |:dd de |BB BG/2A/2 |BB Bd |
A3c |dB de |fB BA |GA G>F | G4 :|
|:d2 df|df d/2e/2d/2c/2 |B3c |
f2 ef/2e/2 |d2 df |df df |ec Ac | BA/2G/2 F:|

AI will take away composers' jobs!

(In all honesty, that was not half bad although a bit trippy as Eshed has already stated.)
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Fred

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #47 on: May 27, 2018, 12:09:56 PM »

Last Sunday, this happened (hope it works)
https://www.facebook.com/100009856022661/videos/629745174030678/

Don't have an account and sadly can't watch it. Any other source for this?
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Theo

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #48 on: May 27, 2018, 12:20:10 PM »

Last Sunday, this happened (hope it works)
https://www.facebook.com/100009856022661/videos/629745174030678/

Don't have an account and sadly can't watch it. Any other source for this?
[/quote

I have a facebook account and it doesn't work for me either
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Ellison

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #49 on: May 27, 2018, 12:35:21 PM »

Nope, sorry, can't fix it.
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Theo

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #50 on: May 27, 2018, 12:47:25 PM »

Martin, I can’t even see it on your fb page.
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Jesse Smith

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #51 on: May 30, 2018, 04:35:00 PM »

After working on this all month, here is my eleventh hour (or 30th day) contribution:

https://youtu.be/cSUnwolT648

For whatever reason, I gravitated towards playing this more as a sort of jaunty, loping hornpipe than a lively polka. I've been listening to John Kirkpatrick's Border Morris albums (Sheepskins and The Duck Race) a lot, so I suspect there's an influence there.

It's a lot sloppier than I'd like, and a few things didn't quite come out how I intended, but this is probably as good as it's going to get this month. I'll keep working on it, but I think I've at least succeeded at coming up with an interesting arrangement, rather than just playing the printed notes on the page.

The deeper I get into learning this instrument, the more respect and admiration I have for those professional and amateur players who can consistently rattle off tunes with crisp, precise rhythm every time, without hesitation or misplaced fingers. The more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn!
« Last Edit: May 30, 2018, 05:09:33 PM by Jesse Smith »
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Dick Rees

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #52 on: May 30, 2018, 05:00:37 PM »

Jesse...

Tip Top!  For 7 months in, that's 7 thumbs up...
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Nick Ray

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #53 on: May 31, 2018, 08:55:53 AM »

The deeper I get into learning this instrument, the more respect and admiration I have for those professional and amateur players who can consistently rattle off tunes with crisp, precise rhythm every time, without hesitation or misplaced fingers. The more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn!

I'm with you there Jesse. I'd be depressed about the whole thing if I didn't enjoy learning and playing so much!  ;D
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #54 on: May 31, 2018, 09:08:13 AM »

Jesse, that was excellent, well done!
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #55 on: May 31, 2018, 02:20:37 PM »

The deeper I get into learning this instrument, the more respect and admiration I have for those professional and amateur players who can consistently rattle off tunes with crisp, precise rhythm every time, without hesitation or misplaced fingers. The more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn!

I'm with you there Jesse. I'd be depressed about the whole thing if I didn't enjoy learning and playing so much!  ;D

If I can draw your attention to Clive's comment
http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,22270.20.html

All may not be what it seems. (:)
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Jesse Smith

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #56 on: May 31, 2018, 02:45:44 PM »

If I can draw your attention to Clive's comment
http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,22270.20.html

All may not be what it seems. (:)

Ah yes, and in fact this was a situation where I certainly would have liked to combine two takes because I nearly fell off the horse on the second lap (but pulled myself back on!), and there were other takes that didn't have that problem, but I felt that my rhythm on the first pass was more solid on this take, and when in doubt make a good first impression and then mess up later in the tune, rather than the other way around, that's my new motto!

But I really do think musicians must have a streak of masochism, because to me the learning process is mostly all about watching the road in front of you get longer as move down it! You become aware of aspects you hadn't even considered before, and suddenly your naive "OK, I've learned where the notes are, how hard could it be?" becomes "Oh, that hard, right..."
« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 02:53:36 PM by Jesse Smith »
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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #57 on: May 31, 2018, 03:39:27 PM »

Just for fun, I listened to the Stackstead Band's original of this tune, separated out the top line (which is very plain) and the main harmony part (which has most of the twiddly bits) and recorded them separately. It's not the full band arrangement, but it sounds a bit more like it.

The video is of the top part, and the second part was added as sound only.

https://youtu.be/G0kbGUgXZLY
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Clive Williams

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #58 on: May 31, 2018, 10:50:13 PM »

Thanks all - I've put up the new tune of the month, but as ever please stick any late contributions on the end here!

Jesse Smith

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Re: Tune of the Month for May 2018: The Tip Top Polka
« Reply #59 on: June 01, 2018, 02:00:54 AM »

Just for fun, I listened to the Stackstead Band's original of this tune, separated out the top line (which is very plain) and the main harmony part (which has most of the twiddly bits) and recorded them separately. It's not the full band arrangement, but it sounds a bit more like it.
In the video description, you write "What's usually played by other musicians is a mixture of top and middle parts from the band arrangement." Do you think the version played in sessions (and in most of the contributions to this thread) is a "devolved" version of the Bacup tune, or is it possible that both evolved divergently from the same original tune? I suggest that only because when I first heard the "Coconut Dance" tune, I felt that it was different enough from what is called the "Tip Top Polka" to be a separate but related tune. Sort of how the Evesham Stick Dance tune Fanny Frail strikes me as being related to / descended from the Jenny Lind Polka.
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